Stateline Canberra

Sandy Hollway

REPORTER (Kathleen Hyland): Has the taskforce been targetting its actions over the last four months based on the premise that people would be rebuilding - was that the assumption that the taskforce made?

SANDY HOLLWAY: No we did an initial survey and we found that the amount of rebuild might be in the order of 60 % or people staying in or coming back to the neighbourhood was about 60%. We always suspected that might be a little bit on the high side in any case.

REPORTER: Well there are predictions now it might be around 30%.

SANDY HOLLWAY: Well indeed, but what consequence flows from this? There is nothing the Taskforce has done by way of block clearance, by way of supporting people, or the other things we've done, that would have been any different - in other words everything we have done is consistent with dealing with this situation wherever it may come out - as between land sale or rebuilding.

REPORTER: Purely speaking on financial terms hould more incentives be offered for more people wishing to rebuild?

SANDY HOLLWAY: First of all I think I want to address what I think is an underlying premise in the questions which is that somehow rebuilding by people burnt out is preferable to selling to somebody who will then rebuild I don't understand this argument I'm really saying I don't think I favour some kind of direct subsidy for people who are rebuilding.

REPORTER: Why not? I'm asking this because some of the fire victims have asked this.

SANDY HOLLWAY: Well the reasons are as follows: First of all, I worry about the equity issue. Why would I advocate providing government subsidy for the building of homes in this case but not in the case of the other two and half thousand people who are building homes in Canberra? - there is every sympathy with the people who have lost their homes in this way but how would I handle that equity issue? Also, the cost to budget of doing that and what sort of subsidy would really be desired? What amount? How much would be needed to make an impact?

REPORTER: Some fire victims have suggested financial incentives for rebuilding like: the waiving of more fees, rebates for efficiency measures, or making building materials GST-free. What do you think about that?

SANDY HOLLWAY: Well, we've looked at particularly the GST angle and I must say I think it's a blind alley - it doesn't do anybody any good for me to be less than frank about that. Bear in mind also that even if you take into account the 17 million dollars that the Government is getting from the Commonwealth Government, even if you take into account the 10 million dollars that will come from the levy, the community of the ACT through its taxes is still in the hole for about 34 million dollars to deliver the necessary bushfire recovery. So it would be wrong I think to have a picture that somehow there's been either a tax windfall to the ACT that's somehow being squirrelled away or that there is much financial room for maneouvre.

REPORTER: The fee that HAS been waived for those rebuilding is for people who choose to build exactly the same house that was there before the fires went through even if that was an ex-government cottage. Is that really a sensible approach to rebuilding given that most people are building far bigger houses in order to capitalise properly on that block?

SANDY HOLLWAY: Yes they have. I mean there are categories 1, 2, 3. Category 1 is where you basically rebuild the place that was there, Category 2 is marginal change and Category 3 is quite a big change - and it is a very interesting phenomenon that people who might have initially thought 'oh look, I 'll just rebuild what I had before' are now thinking 'no if I am going to rebuild at all I will either redesign or go higher'. That's one of the reasons by the way that costs are going up.

REPORTER: Should all categories be given the financial incentive of not having to pay for a building application fee?

SANDY HOLLWAY:I'm not sure I won't wing it on an answer, I take the point, it's not one that I have taken up with the government - happy to have a look at it.

REPORTER: The sense of the community that was there straight after the fires now seems to be fracturing and there seems to be a whole lot of competing interests now that some people are choosing to rebuild and others are choosing to sell, how is the taskforce going to best represent all those interests?

SANDY HOLLWAY: Well I am interested that you say the community is fracturing I would have thought the Canberra community has been generous in spirit and rock solid in substance behind the trauma faced by people that have lost their homes I see everybody from the Salvos to the Phoenix group coming forward in all sorts of ways to assist.

REPORTER: But in terms of fire victims they seem to be having different interests now in that some plan to stay in the area, some plan to leave, some plan to rebuild, some plan to sell.

SANDY HOLLWAY: Sure. But individuals have different interests, I mean I think I just again want to resist the underlying thesis I think that somehow because people have different interests it puts them in a position of antagonism or competition. I mean people selling, people rebuilding, these are all perfectly legitimate choices which in no way should fracture a community.

REPORTER: So you're saying that if somebody decides to stay in their cul-de-sac in Duffy and the people either side of them sell and both of those blocks are going to be turned into dual occupancies - there's no fractured interests there?

SANDY HOLLWAY: No, no, no I'm not saying that at all. I mean you introduced the idea of fundamental change to the neighbours. Now, obviously I understand that if the fundamental character of a neighbourhood was to change in terms of say more dual occupanices, in terms of unit developments where there were houses before - totally different proposition - and please don't lead me to arguing - which I'm not - that that is something which would cause no differences or difficulties, of course it would, and of course the government would have to consider - which it is - what the appropriate rule and limitations are on character change in the surburbs including in relation to dual occupancies. But I think I could paint a picture of what the suburbs will be like. I know there's uncertainty out there, but there are some things that can be said. The suburbs will be rebuilt.The suburbs will be re-greened, around the edge of these suburbs even if you don't have pine forest adjacent to your back fence there will be land and landscaped land - the outlook will be terrific. The community facilities will be rebuilt. People can have in my view, certainty on all this. They can go ahead - whether they decide to move and new neighbours move in, whether they decide to rebuild themselves, people can have certainty that the suburbs will be rebuilt and the suburbs will be rebuilt as good as they were before, perhaps in some respects, better.

REPORTER: Sandy Hollway Chair of the Bushfire Recovery Taskforce, thank you very much.